Rock reinforcement in tunnels and mines is accomplished by installing a number of rock bolts distributed over the rock faces of the walls and roofs of tunnels and galleries. To the extent that the installation is documented, this is carried our manually by notes on paper, but most commonly the installation is not documented at all.
A manual documentation process is, however, time consuming and unreliable. It is often difficult to assure the quality of the reinforcement installation, in particular since, in particular in tunnels, the rock bolts are very often covered with so called shotcrete shortly after the installation.